Social Media

Why We're 'Only in the Early Days' of Social Search

Web searches aren't what they used to be. Now, you can get relevant search results pooled not only from images, videos, news articles and blogs, but also Facebook friends, connections on Twitter and even Gmail.

"Just as search engines try to improve algorithms, companies such as Bing and Google are really starting to understand how social search fits into results and the overall experience," says Kath Skerry, client services director for SEO and social search marketing company iProspect. "In addition to making social elements more prominent, results are becoming more personalized with links to user-generated content, videos and blogs with brand mentions and connections through your social networks."

For example, Bing has been an innovator with social search. In fact, it was the first search engine to incorporate Facebook and Twitter into its core results.

"What we saw from customer research and feedback was that people were a bit overwhelmed at first with social results, so we wanted to make it easier for them to navigate and get the information they wanted," says Lisa Gurry, senior director at Bing.

In May, Bing redesigned it social search strategy by pulling people from your social networks of search results and placing them in a dedicated social column via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn integration. For example, when doing a search for the TV show Breaking Bad, it now pulls up your Facebook friends who like the show, as well as relevant blogs and even the Twitter accounts of some of the cast members.

The platform also allows you to ask questions through those networks, without ever leaving Bing, and even tag friends in queries.

"A lot of consumers really like the new approach, and we aren't favoring Microsoft services compared to Google, which ranks Google+ at the top of results. We make sure our users are getting the most relevant and personalized information out there, regardless of the platform," Gurry says.

In addition, Bing reps note that it plans to partner with more companies in the future to further grow its social search experience.

"Our research shows that there is tremendous value in knowing that your friends have given a stamp of approval to a hotel or restaurant, and there's so much more we want to do with this in mind," says Gurry. "Overall, we believe there is a huge opportunity ahead in the social search space, and we are only in the early days."

It's true that Google has placed a lot of focus on Google+ content in searches through the “People and Pages on Google+” pane on the side of the search window, but the company said it wants to have access to the meaningful content it provides (and it doesn't have that kind of access to Facebook and Twitter).

In January, Google rolled out a search update called "Search, plus Your World," which first allowed users to “search across information that is private and only shared to you, not just the public web.”

Most recently, Google announced a trial where you can sign up to get information from your Gmail right from the search box.

"So if you’re planning a biking trip to Tahoe, you might see relevant emails from friends about the best bike trails, or great places to eat on the right hand side of the results page," Google said in a blog post. "If it looks relevant you can then expand the box to read the emails."

A Google spokesperson told Mashable that the company remains focused on getting information to web searchers as quickly and efficiently as possible and has its sights set on new ways to do so, with social integration being one of the many strategies.

"Search should help you find the answers you’re looking for quickly, whether it’s from an image, a video, a news article or an email you received a few weeks ago," a Google spokesperson says. "Search results should be really universal and include not just results from the public web, but also your own personal stuff that is available to you or things that people you're connected to have shared with you. This may help you, for example, find messages and content that hold the best answer for your search on Google even if you don’t realize you already had it on Gmail."

In addition, search integration with Google+ opens up a lot of potential opportunities for brands with a strong presence on the social network.

"For many brands with a Google+ profile, that social network is given a lot of weight in Google and pops up at the top of a search," says Skerry of iProspect. "It's important that if you have a Google+ presence, it's active and has information that is up to date because it can be a real influence on the end user."

As for the future of social search, Skerry believes search engines will only become smarter and more relevant.

"Moving forward, search engines will be looking at results with a more critical eye. If Justin Bieber, who has a large Twitter following and web presence, tweets about a washing machine, his post may show up in search now, but he's hardly a washing machine expert. Search will become smarter and look at the true influencers on specific topics to give you the most relevant results."

Do you like the concept of social search? Is this the wave of the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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